Rich McKnight
“It’s the first time we’ve done this for someone outside the group… and it’s ''your ''friends.” “So, ah… Jesus, Rich… do you wanna just turn back?” “No. I wanna see this through, and that’s my point. Doesn’t matter to me who we save. But it matters to you.” - Rich and Jeff Grey arguing over their rescue efforts in [[Life After: The Void|''Life After: The Void]] '''Richard Allan "Rich" McKnight '''is a major character in the 'Life After' novels. A victim of homelessness, Rich had been living in and around Thomas Massey high school following the dissolution of his marriage. He is sleeping just outside a basement access when he is run into by Jeff and a small band of followers, joining them to survive the first hours of the zombie apocalypse in 'Life After: The Arising. Appearance and Character Rich is tall and lean with a scraggly reddish-brown beard, green eyes, a square jaw, and a medium complexion; when shaved, Jeff likens him to a lanky Robin Williams. Owing to his state of homelessness, his clothing is initially disheveled and his personal hygiene is extremely poor, improving remarkably once he joins Jeff's group. Rich is practical, resourceful, and level-headed; despite frequently involving himself in arguments, he is unfazed by confrontation, showing more interest in the greater good than convincing people of his opinion. In spite of this, Rich is in denial that he is deeply resentful to those who haven't suffered his hardships; while he affects an attitude that members of the group, particularly Jeff, are ungrateful for how easy their lives were prior to the apocalypse, he consistently fails to take responsibility for the manner in which his own actions contributed to his homelessness. While Rich struggles to maintain a rapport with Jeff, he seems to have a far greater kinship with John Anderson; both prefer honesty and directness, are inclined to work with their hands, enjoy sharing the workload of small projects, and occasionally commiserate over their tumultuous lives. Further bolstering the notion that Rich requires firm commonalities to forge relationships, his seemingly instantaneous bond with Karen DeMarco, who is far closer to his age than the rest of the group, might be indicative of his discomfort with being surrounded by young adults. Beneath his façade of pragmatic calm, Rich is deeply affected by the loss of his family and the mere suggestion that the group might have to endure life without Karen. Rich rarely becomes emotional, but appears unable to restrain himself when addressing these issues with Jeff, and while seemingly always up for a good debate, Rich regularly shuts down or changes the subject when challenged on his familial or romantic ties. History Born between May 21st and June 21st in 1956 to Beth, a homemaker, and Henry, a heater service specialist, Rich was raised in Broomall, Pennsylvania as an only child. Henry, an Episcopalian, sought to raise Rich in a progressive environment from a very young age, emphasizing the importance of patience, empathy, and a sense of self worth as he worked tirelessly to support the family. Beth, meanwhile, was a rare presence in the household, being unemployed more often than not. Though young Rich would frequently inquire about his mom's whereabouts, Henry would always find a way to avoid the subject. Later on, Henry's patience on the subject of Beth began to wear thin, replaced by a hair-trigger rage that would see him lash out at Rich. From a relatively young age, Rich became interested in mental health and imagined himself becoming a psychologist. While certainly intelligent, his academics were consistently near the middle of the pack and his SAT scores were merely above average, limiting his options for higher education. In spite of this acknowledgement, Henry was quietly saving money to expand Rich's horizons following his graduation from Thomas Massey high school. During his junior year, Rich began to suspect that his mother was addicted to some form of narcotic, but couldn't bring himself to discuss it with his father. In 1973, when Rich was 17, Beth disappeared, never to be heard from again. Since she had barely been an active force in Rich’s life, he would ultimately feel more relief than sorrow, but Henry took her absence hard, particularly when the emotional toll was compounded by a financial one: Beth had taken everything out of Henry's savings, including the money he'd squirreled away for Rich. Shocked and disgusted by his mother’s antics and overwhelmed with a sense of duty to his father, Rich got his CDL in summer of 1974 and began driving a bus for the Thomas Massey school district in autumn of 1974. For the next eight years, he and his father used their paychecks to support each other and, again, start saving so Rich might eventually go to college. While drinking at a local bar in the winter of 1982, Rich meets Alexandria Wright, a chemical engineer; the two hit it off and begin dating shortly thereafter. In January of 1984, Henry begins coughing up blood, losing weight, and wheezing; it is discovered he has lung cancer. Rich spends what money he has on treatment while Alexandria tries to support Rich. Among other heartbreaking deathbed conversations, Henry eventually admits Beth rarely brought money home, that he suspected she had been unfaithful, and that he had always known about her cocaine problem. Trying to control his temper, Rich inquired as to why his father stayed with her for so long. Henry’s only explanation was he was truly in love, that love didn’t have to make sense, and that his dedication to her was the same as his dedication to Rich. Finally, Henry made Rich promise that he would take care of Alexandria as long as he loved her, and to never give up no matter how hard things got. Henry died on January 15th 1985. Rich sells his family home and moves into an apartment on leasehold in the spring of 1986, though he does not end up with much money following his father’s medical expenses and funeral costs. Alexandria eventually moves in with him and they marry on June 30th 1987. They intermittently fight over money, with Alexandria encouraging Rich to go to college so he can get a better job. Despite the fact that this is something Rich always wanted, he resolves to stick with his current profession because driving a bus agrees with him; fortunately, these unresolved disagreements are easily overcome by their mutual affection and shared goals as a couple. However, their lives take a tailspin when Rich is laid off in summer of 1993. His search for a new job is fruitless primarily because he fails to find anything that seems as personally fulfilling as driving a bus, and as a result, his fights with Alexandria become exponentially worse. After a brief reconciliation, Alexandria leaves him in late January of 1994, living with her mother while Rich survives off of a paltry savings while working at a local McDonald’s. Without Alexandria’s income to support his leasehold, Rich defaults and briefly lives with Bill Allenby, his still-employed former co-worker from the bus depot. Believing himself to be a burden in spite of Bill’s wife’s intense sympathy to his plight, Rich shows up at Bill’s less and less, at which point his lack of hygiene and morose demeanor become problematic at work, leading to his firing from McDonald’s in February of 1994. Believing himself to be an irredeemable failure, Rich takes to the streets, only occasionally staying with Bill when the weather was unbearably hot, cold, or stormy. In March 1994, a private investigator finds Rich in the alley behind the same bar where he first met Alexandria, serving him with divorce papers; as he fills out the forms on the lid of a dumpster, the investigator tells him that Alexandria is pregnant. The prenup ensures that Rich gets nothing, but he convinces the investigator to give him Alexandria’s number. When he gets a hold of her, she tells him to wait until the divorce is finalized before calling back and promises that she’ll talk to him then. He calls back from a payphone in July of 1994, where an hours-long conversation sees Alexandria reveal that she had cheated on Rich in August of 1993 after months of quietly hating him. Rich’s heartache manifests as anger, and after yelling at her, Alexandria sobbingly admits that it was very likely that she never loved Rich as much as he loved her. Alexandria immediately tries to take it back, and though he’s desperate to hurt her as much as she hurt him, Rich doesn’t feel it’s worth it, and eventually hangs up. He walks away, hearing the phone ring for twenty minutes while he walks to the drainage pipe where he’s been sleeping. In December of 1994, he strongly considers committing suicide. In June of 1995, Rich meets the first of two runaway kids, quickly convincing the pre-teen to go home. During this time, he finds a rare sense of equilibrium; he’s resigned to his fate and remains too proud to go on welfare or beg, but manages to eat regularly from the dumpster behind the bar while landing the odd manual labor job. Bill gets divorced in February of 1997, and, since he has no kids, insists that Rich move in with him, which Rich is only too happy to do. However, Bill meets another woman in December of 1997, and by January of 1998, she’s pressured Bill to ask Rich to leave. Rich goes without complaint, knowing that his new girlfriend has kids from a previous marriage who wouldn’t want a homeless freeloader hanging around. In spite of this, Bill and Rich maintained irregular contact, and Bill continues to bring him food and new clothes while letting him quietly sleep in his shed on colder nights. The only other person with whom Rich regularly interacts during this time is Nancy, another local homeless person who is severely mentally ill; though Rich isn’t entirely proud of himself for doing so, he lets her buy him food from time to time. On one occasion, with Rich near starvation in the winter of 1999, Nancy insists that Rich must have sex with her if he wants any food. Though the idea repulses him, he ends up going through with it, and from that point forward, she insists that he trade sex for food, which he vows to do only when totally desperate. Unfortunately, Nancy essentially takes over his spot behind the bar in March of 2000, her flagrant antics attracting the cops with regularity, forcing Rich to relocate. In June of 2000, Rich settles around TMHS, his familiarity with the grounds going a long way toward keeping him safe from cops and out of sight from students and faculty. In August of 2000, Rich meets the second runaway and they spend the evening sharing his fire just outside the basement. Rich listens as the boy details the pains of his parents' divorce, telling him that all he can do is tell his parents how they’re making him feel; if it gets worse, Rich tells him he can come back, but if it gets better, he looks forward to not seeing him again. When he wakes up the next morning, the boy is gone, and Rich never sees him again. Several times from 2002 to 2004, Rich hears Jeff Grey and his various friends climbing around on the high school roof. In the fall of 2004, the same private investigator that served Rich his divorce papers finds him to deliver a postcard from Hardwick, Massachusetts. It contained a message from Alexandria, suggesting that Rich deserved an opportunity to know his soon-to-be ten-year-old daughter Kelsey, who was born September 13th 1994. Rich contacted Bill, who agreed to pay for new clothes, a haircut, a bus ticket, and a hotel room the night before he intended to go, but any further plans were interrupted by the events of October 9th, 2004. Recent Events Life After: The Arising Rich is asleep near the boiler room access door of TMHS when he is startled awake by Jeff, Julia Marino, Jake Klimavicius, John Johnston, Melody Landon, Ava Vaziri, Don Mason, and Matt Hughes. Jeff implores Rich to join them, following without question as he is led up to the greenhouse. Seemingly intoxicated, Rich doesn't say much as Jeff explains that a group of zombies rushed the football field and all hell has broken loose. Rich assists Jeff with his attempts to secure the greenhouse, eventually helping him tie down Steve Parmacek, who may have been infected, before agreeing to stay awake and observe the situation outside. The next morning, Jeff shakes Rich awake to inform him that Steve has turned into a zombie and that the group is going for a supply run. After assisting their efforts from afar, Rich thanks Jeff for inviting him to join them, then helps Jeff secure Steve in the greenhouse before volunteering to take the first rotation watching the main road from the roof. After Rich observes the signs of a toxic dynamic among the group, Jeff accompanies Don to the downstairs bathroom, later returning and succumbing to an asthma attack before admitting that Don is dead. When Jeff awakens the next day, Rich interrogates him over the incident with Don, insinuating that Jeff's actions were too rash. Shortly thereafter, the group is miraculously stumbled upon by Jeff's best friend John Anderson. Rich uses the opportunity to elaborate on his earlier criticism of Jeff, indicating that he'd prefer to take orders from Anderson, at which point Jeff informs him that Anderson's next goal is to lead the group to the nearest check point and reattach with the Guard. Failing that, Jeff suggests that he, Anderson, and Rich serve as the leaders of the group. Though Rich attempts to continue his watch duties, he ends up admonishing Jeff and his friends after he catches the tail end of a yet another fight. That evening, Rich and Anderson start to become acquainted, but any appearance of harmony is shattered when a throng of undead sieges TMHS, splitting the group in half as they scramble for an escape; Jeff, Julia, Melody, and John Squared go one way while Anderson, Jake, Ava, and Rich go another. A chase across the roof leads Anderson's quartet through the auditorium roof access, where his group is set upon by the undead and Ava is killed. Anderson, Jake, and Rich finally escape from the high school, linking up with Jeff, Julia, and Melody, who were forced to leave John Squared behind. They drive first to the nearest major thoroughfare, finding that both lanes headed toward the nearest check point at I-476 are blocked with a line of abandoned vehicles, so they divert to the police station in the neighboring town of Broomall, which was supposed to be a rescue center but seems to have been recently abandoned under unsettling circumstances. Against Anderson's initial protests, they stop by a local sporting goods store to arm themselves while Rich insists that they take a district school bus to unburden themselves from travel in Jeff's two-door sedan. They arrive at the check point shortly before dawn, finding a massacre. An errant vehicle trying to merge on the interchange is stopped by the few remaining undead, so Jeff and Anderson rescue the occupant, former nurse Karen DeMarco. The group resupplies at a local supermarket and stops by Jeff's house, where Rich gets a long awaited shower and shave before they begin a trek to the Lima Mall, the last known local rescue center. Along the way, Rich praises Jeff's relationship with Julia before opening up about his life before becoming homeless, but their trip is interrupted when they have to clear the barricades at the Springton Reservoir check point. The group ends up spending the night at the Delaware County Community College, where Karen and Rich first start getting to know each other before the building is attacked by the undead, revealing another small group of survivors holed up in the complex. The next day, Jeff and his compatriots continue to the mall. When they arrive at yet another deserted rescue center, Anderson abandons his attempts to reconnect with the Guard and ratifies a previously suggested three-way leadership platform of himself, Jeff, and Rich. While the group spends the night at the mall pending their next move, Julia takes an opportunity to get Jeff alone and take their relationship to a long awaited next level. When the mall is riddled with zombies the following day, the group hurriedly exits and decides to loot a nearby hospital for medical supplies; along the way, Jeff and Anderson subtly chide Rich for his obvious attraction to Karen. The hospital mission goes well until Julia is badly cut by an errant swipe from a zombie with a scalpel wedged in its fist; having apparently committed suicide with the same instrument, the zombie's blood gets in Julia's open wound. Julia quickly resigns herself to her fate, asks to be rendered unconscious, and shares one last tender moment with Jeff before being executed by Rich. Under Anderson's direction, Jeff is locked up in a room by himself, leaving Anderson and Rich to oversee the elimination of a brief incursion by the undead. By the next day, Jeff is a shell of a man, spending most of his time wallowing in reminisces of Julia as the group abandons the hospital and returns to Newtown Square. After Rich indulges Jeff with the remaining story of his divorce and estranged child, Jeff suggests that the group fortify TMHS to survive the worst of the crisis, bedding down in the nearby community center to avoid working and sleeping in the same place. While scouting the community center, Jeff and Anderson find the body of a young girl who apparently committed suicide, and soon thereafter, they cross paths with Robert Proctor, a disoriented loner. A survey of TMHS the following day yields the discovery that the zombified Steve has remained untouched in the greenhouse, and not only do they find the zombie of John Squared, Rich also discovers the resurrected corpse of Matt Hughes in the basement, leading Jeff to suppose that he may have led the siege back to them after his ill-conceived exodus. Once they've dispatched all of the remaining zombies, the group returns to the community center, where Karen cremates Julia's body in an old kiln. The following day is spent using the abandoned cars around TMHS to barricade the major egresses. When they return to the community center, an ethical and spiritual debate erupts between Rob, Rich, and Anderson; Rich aggressively defends his progressive values while Rob opines a more conservative and religious perspective. The work continues the next day, with most of the time spent improving internal fortifications before a break in the action sees Jeff, Anderson, and Rich putting down a brief siege by the undead. A news report later in the evening suggests that the epidemic has spread to Europe, but a more pressing concern develops when Jeff finds Rob injecting drugs. An improvised intervention goes south and Rob nearly murders Jeff with his own rifle. To overcome his resulting rage, Jeff single-handedly engages a throng of undead, brutally executing them before dissolving into tears and passing out. With Rob isolated from the rest of the group, they continue working on TMHS the next day; after Rich teaches Jake to drive and the two of them block several of the exits around TMHS with cars, Jeff and Anderson go to survey the football field and find their high school friend Colin Mursak holed up in the concession hut; his first and only concern is that his younger sister Elena is still at home with his mom and dad, so Jeff, Anderson, and Mursak undertake a dangerous journey to Havertown that leads to the successful rescue of Mursak's sister and the demise of his infected parents. An evening news report confirms what Jeff and Anderson intuited from several earlier encounters with the undead: the first wave that left Newtown Square a week prior has grown and is set to return to the area within the next few hours. The group prepares to spend one last night in the community center, but the building is besieged and the group splinters in the confusion. Due to Anderson's evacuation efforts, everyone makes it out but Jeff, so he and Mursak re-enter the building to extract him with Rich readies the bus outside. After recovering Jeff on the roof, the three of them jump on top of the bus and Rich drives the group safely to TMHS. The group takes various positions around the high school to observe the approaching wave of zombies, but the undead seemingly take no interest in TMHS until a young woman runs screaming out of a house adjacent to the school. Anderson runs out to intercept her while Rich attempts to lure the undead away using the bus. Jeff suggests that the risk of saving this girl might not have been worth taking over the radio, finding himself overridden by both Anderson and Rich as the latter leads their potential attackers off to an uncertain fate. Life After: The Void Two months after the events of ''Life After: The Arising'', Jeff, Anderson and Rich have settled their band of survivors into a new life at the freshly fortified high school, which now features a newly installed video surveillance system. While the group tensions seem to have largely abated into a realm of amicable mutual respect, the recently rescued Helen Cleary has bonded with Anderson while remaining passively at odds with Jeff, and their newest arrival, a psychology student discovered holding up in the otherwise abandoned Lima Mall named Althea Luangrath, largely keeps to herself. In the time since they first met, Rich and Karen have grown close enough that they're planning to room together. When Jeff proposes that he, Mursak, and Anderson travel to their former domiciles to collect computers and personal effects, Rich lodges an impassioned objection, his vitriol turning a bitter argument between he and Jeff into a physical altercation that Jeff ultimately neutralizes. Following this encounter, Rich proceeds to tell everyone he can about Jeff's intentions, finding little support for his anger from both Karen and Althea. Since Anderson and Jeff are outvoting him, Rich finally resigns himself to their sojourn, relaxing somewhat when they approach him to prepare their vehicle and supplies for the journey. Rich sees them off the following morning, requesting that Jeff acquire him a DVD copy of ''Spellbound, only for Jeff to counter that he already owns the film. The trio are only gone for a few hours, returning with their wares and their vehicle severely damaged; at this point, Rich admits that he disabled the car's engine control unit so that it would keep driving even if they'd been involved in an accident. The group conducts an after-action review, then returns to their usual duties. When the undead begin to crowd the front lawn shortly therafter, Rich distributes the weapons. The next morning, the group discovers their first news broadcast in some time and gather around the TV. The program describes the use of a nuclear weapon in continental Europe and goes on to detail ongoing rescue efforts by the military, militias, and paramilitary groups within the United States. Anderson and Rich quickly agree that they should advertise their presence for a rescue, but Jeff's impassioned rebuttal leads to the group agreeing to a tribunal where Rich will argue to leave, Jeff will argue to stay, Anderson will serve as a mediator, and the rest of the group will cast their vote for either Jeff or Rich's initiative. Rich is infuriated that Jeff manages to turn what was a two-to-one vote against him into a group affair, but calms down when Jeff argues that Helen has been trying to sway Anderson's vote since she first arrived and that he should be viewed as compromised going forward. When the group assembles for the tribunal, Rich fashions a blindfold for Anderson so he can't receive any signals from Helen. After Jeff's argument carries the day, Rich and Jeff solidify an agreement to make concessions on each other's behalf in order to lessen Helen's sway over Anderson. Rich invites Jeff to have a drink with him so they can bury the hatchet, at which point Rich finally concludes the saga of his familial strife: the same private investigator who served him his divorce papers finds him to deliver a postcard from his ex-wife, through which she indicates that Rich deserves a chance to get to know their ten-year-old daughter. Jeff indicates that Rich could still try to reconnect with them, but Rich avoids the subject, preferring to get drunker and finally watch '''''Spellbound. The following morning, Jeff is awoken by Mursak and alerted to the fact that a young woman with an infant has been spotted in front of the school. They ultimately invite Tracy and Jimmy Dantis to spend the night. Karen takes Jimmy and Jeff privately welcomes Tracy, but she ultimately commits suicide in one of the bathrooms. A cursory examination of her body reveals that she'd been bitten by a zombie. The next day, Rich is among the majority of the group waiting to engage Jeff in an intervention, seeking to extract an admission that Jeff isn't dealing with his grief and that his belligerence is only worsening. Jeff ultimately lashes out and secludes himself in his room. The following day, which is Christmas Eve, the entire group is awoken by the sound of helicopters that herald a scientific expedition to the cemetery. Jeff asks Rich to assist him in relaying commands from Anderson about what they should do next, but in the end, the soldiers depart, leading Rich, Anderson, and Mursak to celebrate by getting drunk in the cafeteria. While listening to Mursak rhapsodize about the bounty of their supply runs, Helen announces a vehicle approaching from the street. Jeff, Anderson, and Jake scramble for reconnaissance, but when the approaching camouflaged men open fire, Anderson insists that they take arms and defend themselves. The result is a brutal firefight in which several of the intruders are killed, Anderson is rendered unconscious, Rich gets wounded, and both Melody and Helen are abducted. Jeff immediately conscripts Rich and Mursak for a rescue effort. Tracking their assailants back to Delaware County Community College, the trio of Jeff, Rich, and Mursak do some amateur reconnaissance and discover that their attackers seem to be keeping the girls alive. After clandestinely traversing the woods on the outskirts of campus, Rich suggests that their only recourse is to kill all of the marauders, an acknowledgement to which Jeff and Mursak reluctantly agree. Rich uses Anderson's silenced rifle to kill a few of them while Jeff murders two with his katana, both acts deeply disturbing him. Rich manages to snap Jeff out of his lament long enough to retrieve Helen and Melody. After they believe they've killed all of them, the quintet returns to TMHS. The following day is Christmas, and the group celebrates with a large, elegant breakfast, during which Rob is introduced as having completed his rehabilitation. The group exchanges gifts, and with his best friend still unconscious, Jeff opens Anderson's present to find a framed picture of his family, something that causes Jeff to break down into tears. The entire group embraces him as he cries. Following the meal, the group takes stock of their supplies and Althea begins therapy sessions to which Rich is quietly unreceptive, dodging her attempts to psychoanalyze Mel at the meal that follows. After Althea's departure, Jeff mentions that his friends Alan Taylor and Jack O'Connor, both of whom holed up at Penn State, are on the cusp of encountering serious hardships, particularly as their water supply seems to be contaminated and someone in their group has murdered someone else. Jeff broaches the possibility of a rescue effort, finding Rich surprisingly receptive. Jeff also entreats Rich to sign off on a scouting mission to be undertaken by both he and Mursak, something to which Rich readily agrees. Before the night is over, the rest of the group helps set up Karen and Rich in their own bedroom, having previously insisted upon serving them breakfast in bed the following morning. The following evening, the group watches a news broadcast where an earlier report of a non-nuclear explosion in Eastern Europe is refuted, confirming that a nuclear airburst detonated over Romania, kicking off a series of questions about how the United States will respond and whether they will consider doing the same. Later in the feed, it is stated that wounds on the extremities, such as those suffered by Julia, may not be as fatal as initially thought, stirring Jeff. The group finishes watching the telecast after reports on a tsunami in the Indian Ocean and the undead closing in on highly populated areas of California. After a brief debate over the issue of nuclear weapons, Jeff elects to show the group ''The Day After''to clarify the risks. The next morning Rich, Mursak, and Jeff briefly discuss the relative lack of undead on school grounds, but the following day, Jeff enlists the help of Anderson and Rich to review their video surveillance footage. They quickly discover that the group who attacked them days prior may not have intended to provoke them, after which Anderson reveals Helen claims Mel told their abductors that she wanted to abandon the group at TMHS. Jeff then informs them of his trip to the Gauntlett Center, indicating his belief that Rob might be a murderer. Rich suggests they might have to kill Rob, finding support from both Anderson and Mursak in absentia. When Jeff demurs, Rich entreats him to talk to Mel while he and Anderson mull over the situation with Rob. Rich wakes Jeff the next morning to help put down a small zombie incursion, later going to check on the school's heating machinery, only to have Jeff eventually burst in, insisting upon immediately revisiting DCCC and rescuing Alan and Jack. Rich is still receptive to both of these efforts and suggests that Jeff should do the planning, but expresses reservations the following day when Karen elects to revisit DCCC with Anderson, Jeff, Jake, and Melody. Rich seems infuriated by the fact that Jeff and Anderson are overlooking what he sees as Karen's present state of exhaustion, but fails to convince them that she should stay. In the midst of the DCCC reconnoiter, Rich calls Jeff, only for Jeff to admit that Karen is sick and they're pinned down by a large group of zombies. Rich insists that they come back as soon as possible, but Jeff hangs up on him. The group returns a few hours later to find Rich waiting for them on the front lawn; he reams Jeff for his failure to recognize Karen's illness, forcing Anderson to intercede before Jeff can assault Rich. With tempers cooled, everyone goes their separate ways, with Rich taking Karen to the medbay while following her quarantine instructions. When Jeff visits Karen the next day, she expresses little hope for a successful convalescence from what she believes to be influenza. After assuring her that the group will do what they can, Rich tries to force Jeff to apologize for the situation, but Jeff repeatedly defuses him. Later in the evening, the group watches a celebratory New Year's broadcast in a secured Times Square, with Jeff and Rich taking a particular interest in a performance by a reunited Pink Floyd. On New Year's Day, the group indulges in another extravagant breakfast as they recount their resolutions. What would appear to be a minor siege from the undead turns serious when a few surviving runners attack, but the group maintains their composure and dispatches them. Once the corpses are deposited in the pool, Rich reveals that Karen has suggested some antiviral medications to combat her sickness. Anderson details a complex and infeasible plan to locate looters and trade supplies for the necessary drugs before Mursak reveals that he successfully acquired the medication at the Temple University Ambler health center. The group celebrates by getting drunk and goofing off. The proceeding day begins with Rich trying to coax some sort of plan regarding their forthcoming attempt to rescue Jeff's acquaintances from State College, with Rob suggesting that they call the effort Operation Prometheus. Later, Anderson and Rich tell an exasperated Jeff they've decided that any aberrant behavior from Rob going forward will result in his immediate execution. Jeff and Rich spend the rest of the day planning for Operation Prometheus with Anderson, who is to remain behind; they amass supplies, plan routes, and accord a generous supply of automatic weapons and ammunition to the voyage north. After conferring with Alan the next day, it is ultimately decided that Jeff, Rich, Mel, and Althea will make the trip, leaving Anderson, Karen, Mursak, Jake, Rob, Elena, and Jimmy behind. At daybreak, Operation Prometheus officially gets underway; Jeff takes the lead with Mel in the Humvee while Rich follows behind with Althea on the bus. A quarter of the way through the journey, they spot a stark warning spray-painted on northbound side of an overpass; deeply disturbed by the implications of the message, Jeff insists that he advance in the Humvee alone and that Mel join Rich and the others in the school bus behind him. Shortly thereafter, the group arrives at the Lehigh Tunnel, which is apparently controlled by a small-scale but highly organized gang. After a fraught negotiation with the snowsuit-clad leader results in their safe passage, the group successfully reaches the halfway point of their journey, opening an opportunity for Rich to cast aspersions on Jeff's insistence upon this particular rescue effort. They remain at the halfway point as long as they can before continuing on I-80 toward State College, hoping that they've merely outpaced the Penn State group. The journey continues until the drive is interrupted by radio chatter confirming that Alan and Jack have successfully traversed the worst leg of their trek. After negotiating a long bridge, the group finally reconnects with Alan and Jack and formally meets their party; Nick Wilborn, the pale and heavyset loner who previously murdered another member of their group, Heather Chapman, who is pretty and outgoing with a subtle attraction to Alan, Lada Dragomirov, a sturdy Russian expatriate, Andy Kremens, a vaguely distrustful and soft-featured nerd, Levi Hazen, a fit and stone-faced black introvert, and Nancy Candler-Hollowell, a traumatized old-money outcast. Once everyone has been introduced, they begin loading their gear on the bus and preparing for the return journey. The trip back is immediately complicated by a buildup of the undead at the far end of the bridge; Rich's constant warnings don't dissuade Jeff from impetuously plowing through the parade of zombies until he plunges the Humvee into a ravine between the highway lanes. Jeff and Mel escape with minor injuries, struggling to rejoin the rest of the group as Alan aggressively attacks the oncoming horde from the windows of the bus. Alan's hostility gets the better of him and he's pulled from the window, dropping forty feet into the ravine. Rich can't stop Heather from rushing down from the bus to help as the undead descend upon them, and the resulting skirmish results in Heather getting bitten. Jeff, Mel, and Heather manage to drag Alan up to the highway, where Nick takes it upon himself to execute the moribund Heather. Jeff flies into a blind rage and punches Nick into submission before his friends pull him away and usher him onto the bus, loading Alan on a backboard to escape the horde. After Jack tries and fails to talk through his grief over Alan, Rich sternly indicates that this outcome was one of the risks of their journey, setting Jeff off once again; this time, Jeff mercilessly tears Rich down, insisting that he's never been brave enough to take responsibility for anything in his life, particularly the loss of his family, and Rich instantly backs off. They return to the Lehigh Tunnel, where it seems a new gang has taken control. Another tense deliberation ensues, but Jeff manages to ensure their safe passage, catching sight of the snowsuit-wearing leader of the previous group being executed as they emerge from the other side of the tunnel. Rich listens in as Althea promptly engages with Jeff, analyzing his reaction to their recent circumstances and concluding that Jeff isn't grieving, he's vengeful. Jeff dismisses her, and moments later, they realize that Alan has died from his injuries. The rest of the journey is uneventful until they get close to TMHS and start receiving distressed radio signals from Anderson. Jeff does the best he can to prepare Jack's group for the worst before they arrive at their destination, finding a massive throng of undead sieging the school. As they exit the bus, Rich drives off into the horde, hoping to draw most of the dead away from the group. This effort separates him from the group for the remainder of the day, and while he maintains radio contact into the following morning, Rich hasn't been heard from in over a day by the time Anderson pops smoke.Category:Characters